Alan Bennett’s comedy The Habit of Art unfolds in a studio in the bowels of the National Theatre in London. A script-in-progress is having its first run-through. The subject: a reunion, late in their lives, of the poet W. H. Auden and the composer Benjamin Britten, revered gay artists dealing with the homophobia of their age in antithetical ways. Premiered in the fall of 2009 at the National Theatre (where else?!), this Chinese box of a play has finally crossed over to the Big Apple. Returning to 59E59 Theaters, the Original Theatre Company presents the U.S. premiere of The Habit of Art. Matthew Kelly is the actor Fitz (who takes the role Auden) and Stephen Boxer is Henry (who plays Britten). —Matthew Gurewitsch